Cactus
by KashiiandKureji
Summary: Post-Eclipse, oneshot. Bella is a vampire and living with her husband, Edward. Charlie comes to visit, and Bella gets some mail from someone that she wasn't expecting it from...


**A/N: (Kashii) This is my first Twilight fanfiction! It will probably stay a oneshot, unless I get some ideas for how to continue it – it was just a quick story made in a couple of hours, so not terribly good either. Hope you enjoy, anyway!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Twilight, would I be writing about it on fanfiction dot net? Everything you recognise belongs to the wonderful Stephenie Meyer.**

* * *

"Bella," Edward reminded me, "Charlie's coming in a few minutes, remember."

"I know." How could I forget? I'd been thinking about it all day. And all of the day before…and the day before that, too. Not thinking, exactly, so much as _worrying_ – what if something went wrong?

Ever since I moved out to live with Edward, and had then married him, Charlie had been… supportive, yes, but I got the feeling he didn't approve. I'm not surprised, not after what happened when _he_ got married, but it's different for me. Not that he'd believe me if I said that to him; everyone thinks their relationship is special and unique. I think I can safely say, though, that mine _is_; how many people do you know that have been turned into vampires by their husbands?

And today he was coming for dinner. Emmett and Rosalie were out for the day, together. Jasper didn't seem too eager to meet Charlie, so he'd left, and Carlisle was at work. This left Edward, myself, Alice and Esme at home.

"I'm going downstairs to help Esme set up, are you coming?" Edward asked me. I looked up and smiled at him; his presence alone somewhat reassured me straight away. I nodded.

"Sure." Just then, a strange aroma came to my attention. "Uh, Edward…who's cooking?"

"That would be Alice," he informed me. I blinked.

"Is she any good?"

"I'm not sure, I don't remember having seen her cook much before."

I groaned and followed Edward downstairs, going into the kitchen to help Alice instead. She was standing at a grill (Since when did the Cullens have a grill?), which was emitting a vaguely suspicious crackling noise.

"Alice…" She saw me, and grinned.

"Hey, Bella."

"Hi. Uh… What are you cooking?"

"Something with fish, I think. I'm not sure. You said Charlie likes fish, right?"

"Um, yeah…" I opened the grill and looked at the strange concoction that was sizzling inside. "But that's not fish!"

"It WILL be. Once I'm done with it." I stared at her blankly. "This was sort of an experiment, actually," she admitted.

"I can tell."

"Don't worry, I won't be giving this to Charlie. He wouldn't eat it if I did."

"Oh…okay…" I said, trying to mask the relief in my voice. "What are you making for him?"

"That? I made _that_ ages ago. Here." She gestured to some plates behind her; I moved so that I could see them. There were five plates, each with a generous helping of spaghetti Bolognese. I gave her a thumbs-up approvingly. "It's simple, I know," she continued, "but I don't think he'd particularly mind."

"No," I agreed, "he wouldn't."

"By the way, while I remember – you got some mail." Alice pointed to the counter, where there was an envelope. I picked it up and ripped it open, then scanned it through. I stared at the page in shock.

It was from Jacob.

Alice watched my face expectantly, and when I finally finished reading and lowered the letter, she was quick to talk.

"Who's it from?"

"Er, Jacob."

"What did he say?"

"He…wants to see me." That fact seemed to surprise her as much as it surprised me.

"Are you serious? I thought he'd more or less refused to ever talk to you again, since you got married."

"That's…what I thought too." I re-read the letter, and then a third time. Surely this was some kind of joke… this couldn't be from Jacob, could it? But it had his handwriting, that all-too-familiar writing. And it certainly sounded like the type of thing he'd say. It was definitely him.

"So…are you gonna go see him?" I looked up at Alice, surprised.

"Obviously." How couldn't I? This was _Jacob_. Back in those few dark months that I always avoid thinking about, he was the only reason I got out of bed in the mornings, the only reason I tried to go about my daily routine. Probably the only reason I stayed sane; how could I not go and see him, if he wanted me to? If he had finally forgiven me, for following one half of my heart and marrying Edward, instead of following the other and staying with him?

"Edward will kill you, you know."

"Aw, do I have to die again?" I rolled my eyes, keeping up the calm façade; inside I was desperate to go and meet up with him again. "Edward will get over it. This is my only chance to see him – if I screw it up, he'll never forgive me. He helped me so much, Alice…"

At that point, I heard the doorbell ring. I made to go and answer it.

"Bella," Alice interrupted. "Wait. Esme can get that." Sure enough, I soon heard Esme's and Charlie's voices in the hall. I definitely heard my name, and the word 'kitchen' in their conversation…hopefully, Charlie wouldn't get too impatient.

"Bella." Alice's voice snapped me out of my train of thought. "You're sure about wanting to go meet up with him?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "Alice…will Edward know? I mean, because I told you, will he…hear it in your mind?"

"Not if I block it from him," she assured me. "He'll get suspicious – he always does, when I block my mind from him – but like you said, he'll get over it."

I nodded. "Thanks, Alice." I hugged her, and she laughed.

"At least I can hug you now without wanting to kill you!" she exclaimed. "That's good."

"Um – Alice?" The voices had stopped. "That was pretty loud."

"Oops."

* * *

I took a deep breath, and pushed open the door with my foot, holding the last two plates of spaghetti Bolognese that hadn't already been taken to the table. Finally, I mustered up the courage to actually look _up_ at Charlie instead of staring at the food; I laid the plates down on the table and sat opposite him, next to Edward. Alice was sitting next to Charlie, and Esme next to her.

"Hey, Bells." Charlie's smile was genuine, as far as I could tell; not that long ago, all his smiles around Edward had been very forced. "This looks delicious," he complimented.

"It was Alice," I admitted.

"Mostly," she corrected me. I cocked an eyebrow; I hadn't done anything at all to it. "Bella helped, though." No I hadn't.

"Whoever did it, it smells good." He stared me straight in the eye. "How are you liking it here?"

"It's great. I couldn't be happier." And it was very, very true.

"Good for you." He seemed relieved. "Uh, I had a sort of…housewarming gift for you. Well, you didn't really _buy_ this house recently, but you moved in and – well – anyway, I think it may have died." He looked nervously behind him, where I saw a cactus in a pot. It looked fairly…dead to me. "Sorry."

"Don't worry," I said, and couldn't suppress a laugh.

"So…" he started, in attempt to make conversation. "Who are we missing here?"

"Emmett, Rosalie, Carlisle and Jasper."

"Carlisle's probably at work, right?" he offered.

"Yeah. Emmett and Rosalie are out together, and Jasper…well, I'm not really sure where Jasper is," I lied. No need for him to know that Jasper wasn't too keen on meeting him.

"Aah, okay." He hesitated, looking nervous.

"You can eat, you know," I assured him, taking a forkful of spaghetti and putting it in my mouth. He seemed relieved and also started to eat.

* * *

As I drove along the long and lonesome road to La Push, all I could think was: why the hell was Edward watching ballet? It was good, though – it let me get away.

After Charlie had left, Alice talked with Esme while I stayed with Edward downstairs. The best distraction they could think of together was, apparently, to go and watch some ballet. So they waited until the next day, when Esme confronted Edward with ballet tickets and invited him. He was a bit wary of leaving me at first, but I assured him that I would be fine, and he gave in.

So while I drove towards the border of the Quileute territory, that was all I could think of: that Esme and Alice must have been very, very good at blocking their thoughts, for Edward to have actually given in and not suspected me. At that very moment, he was watching ballet with Esme (Alice having stayed to help me sneak away).

Finally, I slowed down; I was so very near the border. Everything around me was so familiar…I remembered having been there many times in the past. There was a dark figure standing there. It must be…surely it must be… Sighing, I parked my truck by the side of the road, removing the keys. As soon as I was out (remembering to slam the door of my truck shut), I ran towards the person. Sure enough…it was Jacob. My Jacob.

But it wasn't my Jacob at all, it was Sam's. His eyes were hard and cold…unforgiving. Or so I thought, at first. When I approached, his eyes seemed to soften, the tiniest bit; the smallest fraction. My Jacob would forgive me. But was this my Jacob? Was there any of my Jacob left in that… that… werewolf?

I'd told myself, I'd told him too, that I didn't care if he was a werewolf or not. And it was true; I didn't – not if he still thought the same way about me. But I knew for sure that the only reason he hated me now was because he was a werewolf, and he was my natural enemy. It was partly my fault, yes, but if he weren't a werewolf, he wouldn't be glaring at me. For a fleeting second, I hated him for it; but then I remembered that it was still Jacob, and that no matter what he did, I couldn't live without him. Regardless, I was even _less_ willing to live without Edward. I flinched just thinking about it.

"Bella." That one word he spoke said so many things. He looked at me, staring deeply into my eyes; I was at once very self-conscious about the golden colour that he would see instead of the usual brown. That was when he said something I didn't quite expect.

"I'd hug you, but you reek. No offence."

It was my Jacob.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed that; I definitely liked writing it - it was a challenge from the wonderful author (and my awesome friend!) Kimiaa. You should definitely go check out her fanfics, they're amazing.**

**Reviews are lovely. :)**


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